Why wait for an encore? 'City that Sings' is silent

Jul. 18, 2013

A year ago, the Fairfield Choraliers, out of Fairfield High School, won the Show Choir division of the World Choir Games. The excitement that met their performance and those of other singing groups has seemingly dwindled since then. / Enquirer file photo

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The City that Sings must have a bad case of laryngitis.

A year ago, the Queen City basked in the afterglow of the just-completed 7th World Choir Games.

Now, as Cincinnati pats itself on the back following Saturday’s successful conclusion of the World Piano Competition, there’s not been so much as a peep about the city hosting another World Choir Games-related event.

What happened to plans to capitalize on the momentum the Games generated?

One year ago, Cincinnati graciously put out the welcome mat for sold-out, world-class performances by musicians from around the planet.

Last year, for 11 days in July, the hills of Cincinnati were alive with the sound of music. The event was hyped with potent symbols. Before the Games began, a countdown clock on Fountain Square ticked off the seconds until the singers arrived. A massive commemorative bell sounded the opening and closing of the Games during ceremonies at U.S. Bank Arena. The Games’ mascots, Whirl and Twirl, were everywhere and showed up on all sorts of souvenir gewgaws.

Now, one year after the World Choir Games, it’s hard to find a guy humming a tune on a street corner. The bell, the countdown clock and Whirl and Twirl are gathering dust in storage.

The Games brought a United Nations of brightly costumed singers nightly to Fountain Square. The world’s choirs filled Downtown’s sidewalks on their way to perform in packed concert halls.

Despite a record-setting heat wave, Cincinnatians turned out in droves. And in amazing good humor. They smiled in public and laughed out loud. People felt good about this old, fussy, let’s-not-get-too-excited, river city. They also felt a little richer, culturally and financially. Community leaders crowed about Cincinnati taking its rightful place on the world stage. They placed the Games’ economic impact at $73.5 million.

People in the know were giddy about the Games’ success. “The 7th World Choir Games in Cincinnati were the best and most successful in the history of the ‘Choir Olympics,’ ” gushed Gunter Titsch, the Games’ founder and president of Interkultur, the Games’ German producer.

“Fifty years from now,” said Nick Vehr, the Cincinnati Games’ managing director, “people will look back and reflect on ... the impact of the World Choir Games. And they will see that something changed in the psyche of Cincinnati.”

With nothing on tap to mark the one-year anniversary of this momentous occasion, signs about Cincinnati’s changed psyche point to: Maybe yes. Maybe no.

“I’ve got people calling me all of the time saying: ‘Lori, why aren’t we doing something?’ ” said Lori Lobsiger, director of North American markets for Interkultur Americas, headquartered in Mariemont. To that question she replies: “We have had some discussions whether we should have some of our choirs come back together. We continue to work on it.”

Lobsiger does have other events to plan. There’s Sing’n’Joy. This Interkultur-sanctioned event takes place Nov. 28 through Dec. 1 in, of all places, Louisville. Then there’s the Games of the Americas. That’s one of the main qualifying rounds planned to take place around the globe in 2015 to send singing ensembles to the 9th World Choir Games in 2016.

Several U.S. cities want to host the Games of the Americas, Lobsiger noted. Some are on the West Coast. One sits on the East Coast. And one is in the Midwest.

Lobsiger would not name the Midwestern city. She would say who it is not: Cincinnati.

There’s been talk about the Queen City hosting the initial Games of the Americas, she noted. But, so far, it’s just talk.

“It would take a million bucks to pull something off like this,” she said. “It’s a challenge to raise that money.”

So far, she added, no one in government or in the business community is up for that challenge. “It comes down to leadership.”

Procter & Gamble took the lead for Cincinnati’s Games. The company ponied up the money to be the official presenting sponsor. Now, I realize the folks at the hometown soap maker have been busy lately oiling the hinges on the revolving door outside the executive suites. But, P&G is not the only company in town. And everyone benefits from these Games.

That bottom line was enhanced by the 2012 Games’ estimated economic impact, worth noting again: $73.5 million. Along with those dollars, the Games left a legacy of accomplishments. Lobsiger and Calvert pointed to the establishment of a network of volunteers experienced and ready to handle the next big event.

The Cincinnati Games featured performing choirs made up of members with learning disabilities. “We were the first World Choir Games to do that and that will continue in 2014,” Lobsiger said.

Calvert noted how the Games raised the city’s international profile, as well as calling local attention to the wonders of Over-the-Rhine’s then-just-renovated and now-very-popular Washington Park.

Calvert also pointed to post-Games events, such as Cincinnati landing Major League Baseball’s 2015 All-Star Game, the upcoming 2014 National Urban League Conference and the just-completed Optimist International Convention. “The last time the Optimists had their convention in Cincinnati was 1937,” Calvert said. “They told us they came back because we are an All-American city.”

Very nice of them. And optimistic.

But that doesn’t keep the ball rolling from the energy generated by the World Choir Games. This is not the psyche change Vehr talked about at the end of the Games.

One year later, he thinks something should commemorate the event. “But, maybe,” he added, “the Games are like a fine bottle of wine that needs to sit on the shelf a little longer before taking a drink.”

Why wait? Uncork that bad boy and pour everyone a round. Waiting falls into the business-as-usual category, the “let’s not rock the boat, let’s do one big event every two years” mentality that has kept Cincinnati in the shadows of other more aggressive, more confident cities.

Imagine how concertgoers at the World Choir Games would have felt if a choir director announced after a rousing performance: “Ladies and Gentlemen, for our encore, we’re going to sit back and do nothing.”

That goes against the spirit of this great event. Remember, the Games’ theme song wasn’t “Maybe Next Time.” It was “I Can.” ⬛